Austin Avuru, Chairman AA Holdings
Electricity has always been a concern for the continent of Africa leading to deficit due to infrastructural decay and liquidity. At present many people cannot afford it, even it is available.
Apparently expressing concern during his keynote address at the Sub Saharan Africa International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference (SAIPEC) held recently in Lagos, Chairman of AA Holdings, Austin Avuru, disclosed that over 640 million Africans have no access to energy. Even those who have access to it, when available, cannot afford it.
Avuru disclosed that 600 million Africans do not have access to electricity and two third of them cannot afford tier 2 of it. Tier 2 electricity is 20 Watts of four hours per day. Four hundred million people of this six hundred million have no access to electricity even if they had it, they cannot afford tier 2. “The truth of it is that this represents a $100 billion opportunity for service providers in electricity.”
“The same story continues as 920 million Africans have no access to clean cooking while 680 million of them even if they have it, cannot afford. To solve this problem requires a $9 billion opportunity.”
With regards to electricity in Nigeria, Avuru said 82 million citizens have no access to electricity and 45 million of the figure cannot afford it.
“In Nigeria, lack of access to electricity has given rise to $10 to 16 billion opportunity and with clean cooking, it represents a $2 to 3 billion in the sector.” The country has to entrench clean cooking with Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) and Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) to reverse the negative trend.
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